Iron Maiden to Bring ‘Legacy of the Beast’ Tour to North America

Iron Maiden are setting their sights on North America after wrapped up the European leg of the career-spanning Legacy of the Beast tour in August. The band will launch a 34-date tour next summer.

They'll begin at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., on July 18 and conclude Sept. 25 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Tickets for most shows go on sale to the general public on Nov. 16 at 10AM local time, though some dates won't be on sale until noon that day; other dates go on sale Nov. 19 at 10AM local time. The Raven Age will serve as the opening act on all shows; Fozzy will join them for the Sept. 14 date in Los Angeles.

You can see all the dates below and get full details, including pre-sale and VIP packages, at Iron Maiden's website.

The Legacy of the Beast tour began in Estonia back in May, with a 16-song set that saw them break out "Flight of the Icarus" for the first time since 1986. "The Clansman" and "Sign of the Cross," both of which were recorded during the period when Blaze Bayley fronted the band, were also performed for the first time in more than a decade.

Iron Maiden also pulled out the stops for the production, which included a large-scale World War II Spitfire plane flying out over the stage during "Aces High," which opened the show. "Flight of Icarus" featured singer Bruce Dickinson shooting a flamethrower and, during "Iron Maiden," the second-to-last song of the main set, he engaged in a sword fight with band mascot Eddie.

“We gave a lot of thought to the set list for this tour as the songs needed to follow the narrative of the changing worlds of the stage show," bassist Steve Harris said in a press release. "We feel we ended up with a very strong and well balanced set mixing songs we haven’t played in many years like ‘Flight of Icarus,’ ‘Sign of the Cross’ and ‘The Clansman’ with songs we know the fans want to hear like ‘The Trooper,’ ‘2 Minutes to Midnight,’ ‘The Number of the Beast,’ ‘Fear of the Dark,’ ‘Run to the Hills,’ ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ and others, reflecting the journey through the different themes of the show. The whole band is really enjoying this tour and we are really looking forward to seeing everybody again!”

“We’re excited to return to North America and share the Legacy of the Beast Tour with all our friends there!" Dickinson added. "We’re immensely proud of this show and we’ve had great reactions from the many fans who came to see us in Europe earlier this year. The production is based on our mobile game The Legacy of the Beast, which basically takes various incarnations of Eddie into many different Maiden Worlds."

"This inspired us to put together a stage show to take our fans through different Worlds and experiences set to appropriate songs," he continued. "It is not that easy designing different Worlds on stage and we put a huge amount of work into this to make it work and the end result we feel is our most spectacular and certainly the most complex show to date. We’ve got all kinds of crazy things going on, including a replica Spitfire plane dominating the stage during ‘Aces High,’ tons of pyro, a giant Icarus, muskets, claymores and some truly marvelous flame-throwers which I have a hell of a lot of fun with, as you will see! And of course we have Eddie, as you’ve never seen him before, and absolutely loads of other surprises. I’ve had the time of my life playing with all these magnificent props on stage, it’s been fantastic, we can’t wait to bring this show to you!”

According to manager Rod Smallwood, Iron Maiden were intrigued by the idea of not having a tour tied to an album, saying that it "suits our purposes perfectly by giving us scope to get creative and have some fun, especially with Eddie. ... It gives the band a chance to play both new material and the older favorites which we know fans like to hear. It keeps things fresh, not just for the fans but for the band too."

After the European leg of the tour completed, the band released a video thanking fans for coming out that featured footage of the shows. You can watch it below.